Photonic aided bandpass sampling in coherent phase modulated radio-over-fiber links

We have experimentally presented a digital coherent receiver employing photonic aided bandpass sampling technology for phase-modulated radio-over-fiber (RoF) links. An optical intensity modulator (IM) is utilized as the bandpass sampler which performs encoded on-off keyed pulse sequence on the optical local oscillator. Quaternary Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated data signal with 20 MHz bandwidth at 5.2 GHz, 10.2 GHz and 15.2 GHz RF carrier frequency is experimentally demonstrated to be successfully detected by using balanced photodiodes (BPDs) with only 800 MHz analog bandwidth. It demonstrates that the required analog bandwidth of BPDs and ADCs can be dramatically reduced in a direct sampled coherent RoF communications system.